The shoe's history in a nutshell: adidas stan smith pink womensissued its first tennis sneaker in 1963, which was branded as the "Robert Haillet" after the French tennis player two years later. When Haillet retired, the company replaced him with Stan Smith, then the #1 player in the world (still alive in South Carolina, Smith was recently profiled by The New York Times). In 1971, the shoe became known as the "adidas Stan Smith," yet for much of the 70s the shoe showed Smith's face with "Haillet" written above it - identity crisis. It really hit its stride in the 80s, but only became a fashion phenomenon recently. One of the top tennis shoes of all time - both in sales and influence - Complex named it 14th on the list of most influential sneakers ever.

Many have heard of the legendary adidas stan smith white bluesneaker.But few are aware that the shoe, first introduced in 1963 and recently hailed as one of the most important sneakers in the world, takes its name from former No. 1 tennis player Stan Smith.To boot, a lot of the trendsetters bopping around in Stan Smiths today probably weren't even born by the time Smith had retired from tennis in 1985.

If you think we are late with this adidas stan smith mens white story, then I can hazard a guess as to what part you played in our collective fashion endeavour of the past half a decade. Because for the past five years, unwittingly or not, we have together made some era-defining fashion footwear history. Peak Stan Smith could well be to the teenies (we still don’t have an official name for 2010 onwards, do we?) what skinny jeans were to the noughties. If you think that the Stan Smith phenomenon was finished well over a year ago, then your minimal white trainers with their rounded toe and green heel padding are likely a bit trashed and you probably don’t think you can wear them anymore. Maybe you think they’re over. Mainly because nicely dressed mums on the school run in their 40s are wearing them. The truth is that fashion people can’t admit that Stan Smiths owned 2015, but real world evidence says that, “Oh, yes, they did.”

The adidas stan smith grey white gold effect took hold within the music industry, too. The brand produced iterations of the trainer bearing several famous faces on the tongue – including A$AP Rocky and Stan Smith himself. Singer Pharrell Williams released his own line of hand-painted Stan Smiths, which sold out almost immediately. Then came YouTube love letters to the style from actors Will Arnett, Max Greenfield and Ana Girardot; tennis star Andy Murray; musicians Sky Ferreira and Momo Wu, DJs Kim Ann Foxman and Terranova; designers Lucio Castro and Louis-Marie Castelbajac; as well as artists Hisham Akira Bharoocha and Xander Gaines. It was an unsubtle and highly effective cultural love bomb.